KALAMAZOO — The “dog days” of January are over and now it’s time for the Kalamazoo Wings to get serious about grabbing a spot in the ECHL playoffs.

So far this season, it seems like every time the K-Wings (23-16-1-3) get any kind of momentum, they do a mini-slide backwards. There’s just no consistency this year.

They’re past the halfway mark of the season with just 29 games left. Seventeen of them are on the road and that’s not good news unless there’s a gut check by every player. In their six January road games, they posted a 1-4-0-1 record.

A 3-1 win at the Wheeling Nailers last Saturday started February on a winning note but the K-Wings are 10-9-0-1 on the road so far this season.

They lost in New York, 4-1 against the Elmira Jackals last Wednesday, then eked out one point for a 3-2 shootout loss at Wheeling on Friday.

Elmira (16-22-2-2), currently 12th of 13 teams in the Eastern Conference, travels to Wings Stadium for a Wednesday night contest. They bring a conference-high four-game winning streak with them and are 4-1-0-0 in their last five road games.

Matt Caria

Elmira is making moves to improve, starting with Mike Vaskivuo, acquired in a trade with the Fort Wayne Komets on Jan. 6. He had a four-point night against the K-Wings last week, scoring the first goal, then assisting on the other three.

The Jackals also acquired goalie Neil Conway, who turned away 28 K-Wings shots. He started the season in England and is 4-0-0-0 with a 1.69 goals-against average and .951 saves percentage since being signed by Elmira.

It seems the K-Wings have been mired in third place in the ECHL North Division forever, but their win on Saturday gives them 50 points and a tie with the Evansville IceMen (21-12-3-5) for second. However, the IceMen have played two fewer games, which technically keeps Kalamazoo third.

What makes the rest of the season even more crucial is that of their 29 remaining games, eight of them are against the Fort Wayne Komets (19-14-5-4), the team that is nipping at their skates. The Komets are fourth in the North, just three points behind but have one game in hand.

Sam Ftorek

Eighteen of the remaining games are against the North Division where the K-Wings have an 11-11-1-1 record so far. That has to improve if they’re hoping to see the postseason.

The disconcerting thing is that although Yanni Gourde has been up with the AHL’s Worcester Sharks since Jan. 6 and played in just 30 of the K-Wings’ 43 games, he still leads the team in scoring with a team-high 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points.

Even more troubling is that three of the next four top scorers are defensemen.

To be fair, Eric Kattelus is a forward by nature, but he’s been moved back to the blue line with a depleted defensive corps. He has 14 goals and 19 assists for 33 points in 35 games and carries a team-high plus-19 rating.

Rookie center Matt Caria has stepped up with six goals and five assists in his last nine games. He’s moved up to third in team scoring with 29 points (14-15) in 37 games. His points also put him second in the league among rookies.

The next two are veteran defensemen: Sam Ftorek with 28 points (9-19) in 41 games and Elgin Reid 25 points (4-21) in 35 games.

Elgin Reid

Kattelus, Caria and Ftorek are the top three goal-scorers among active K-Wings.

Ftorek is one K-Wing who has cracked the ECHL “top scoring” list with seven power-play tallies, tying him with Idaho’s Anthony Nigro for second in the league. Ftorek is also second overall in power-play points with 17 and leads all defensemen with 28 points.

Reid is tied with several players for second with 12 power-play assists and his 25 points put him tied for fifth among ECHL blueliners.

Special teams haven’t been great this year, either. Kalamazoo is 12th among the 21 teams in the league, converting on just 24 power-play goals in 166 chances for 14.5 percent.

The penalty kill is also struggling, sitting 13th. The K-Wings have allowed 29 goals in 194 kills for 85.1 percent. The bright spot is that they lead the league with 10 shorthanded red-lighters and have allowed just two.

The second-period, where they’ve been outscored 46-36, has been their biggest hurdle. I’m not sure whether it’s complacency or just hoping the goalie will bail them out, but a full 60 minutes would make a world of difference in the outcome of most games.

It would also help to get some healthy bodies back, making players fight for ice time.

Kattelus and defenseman Ben Wilson made the trip East but neither played. Defenseman Jeremie Blain has played just 11 games so far this season and most fans don’t even know that he’s still on the team. Ludwig Blomstrand, with his hand in a cast, is still several weeks away.

We can figure that Gourde will probably not be back unless Worcester doesn’t make the playoffs. He has three goals and 14 assists in 12 games with the Sharks.

However, defenseman Mike Matczak, who was loaned to the AHL’s Adirondack Phantoms on Dec. 28, hasn’t played in the team’s last five games. He certainly would give a boost to the K-Wings blue line if he returned. When he left, he had just two goals and eight assists in 23 games, but he was a plus-10, and that’s still second to only Kattelus

The K-Wings have eked out a few wins thanks to outstanding goaltending by rookie Jordan Binnington and veteran Joel Martin, although at times the K-Wings seem a little lackadaisical in front of Martin and have left him hanging too many times.

Binnington (14-9-1-0) is fourth among active ECHL goalies with a 2.27 goals-against average and .923 saves percentage. Martin (9-7-0-3) is 14th with a 2.80 GAA and .905 percentage.

The K-Wings owe it to the organization and the fans to put a competitive product on the ice.

After 43 games last season, the K-Wings had a 19-19-4-1 record and failed to make the playoffs.

So far this year, they’re tied with Evansville for fifth in the Eastern Conference with the top eight teams making the playoffs.

In the mid-conference logjam, there’s no wiggle room. The Orlando Solar Bears, Fort Wayne and Greenville Road Warriors each have 47 points, just three behind the K-Wings

Bottom line: To make the playoffs, the players need to take the shot when they get the puck, stop taking so many untimely penalties (they rank eighth in penalty minutes, averaging 16.74 per game) and play the entire 60 minutes. Time is running out.